Mr. E. Blyth on the Indian species of Shrews. 27 



19. Cr. (?) CAUDATA ; So7'ea? caudatus, Hodgson, Horsfield's 

 Catalogue (1851) ; for the description seems to indicate a species 

 closely affined to the European S. Alpinus, Schinz, a skull-less 

 example of which, from Mt. St. Gothard, is in our Museum ; and 

 S. Alpinus is ranged among the species having the Corsira type 

 of dentition by Prof. Schinz in his ' Synopsis Mammalium ; ' its 

 tail, however, is naked, and compressed at the tip. " Length of 

 the head and body 2i in. ; of the tail the same, slender, nearly 

 naked, and very slightly attenuated. Colour saturate blackish- 

 brown, very slightly rufescent in certain aspects. Snout mo- 

 derately elongated, furnished at the sides with long delicate 

 hairs.^^ 



[After a very careful comparison of two specimens in the 

 Museum at the India House wdth a specimen of the C. Alpinus 

 of Europe, which I had taken there for that purpose, I con- 

 cluded that C. caudatus and C. Alpinus were very closely 

 affined, if not perfectly identical. The naked compressed tip of 

 the tail in the last-mentioned species, as remarked by Mr. 

 Blyth, also occurs in one of the examples of C. caudatus; 

 indeed, were this specimen to be placed along with the European 

 species, it would be almost impossible to distinguish them. 



It is probable that many Himalayan species may be found to 

 be identical with European ones ; certainly among the Cheiro- 

 ptera, the Plecotus and Barhastellus of Mr. Hodgson are iden- 

 tical with the European representatives of those genera, as I 

 have ascertained by actual comparison ; and the Vespertilio 

 Darjelingensis of that naturaKst dififers only from our V. 

 MYSTACiNus in having the tips of the fur of the back brighter. 

 — R. F. T.] 



We now conclude this effi)rt at a Conspectus of the Indian 

 SoRiciN^ by soliciting aid from all (probably not many persons 

 in India) who take any interest in the subject. It will suffice 

 if specimens could be sent in spirit to the Museum of the 

 Society (if disembowelled, and the abdominal cavity cleaned of 

 blood, so much the better for our present purpose, except with 

 regard to the very diminutive species, examples of which are 

 particularly acceptable), such being far preferable to badly pre- 

 pared skins for being afterwards set up as stuffed specimens, 

 besides permitting of much more satisfactory examination of 

 their differential characters; and it is further desirable that 



Say, a N. American species, which, we believe, only differs from Corsira 

 in the large size of its fore-feet and in its very short tail : — and Otisorex, 

 DeKay, is founded on two minute N. American species, which do not ap- 

 pear to differ from Corsira except in having the ear-conch large and 

 conspicuously visible above the fur. 



